Class GridLayout

The GridLayout class is a layout manager that
lays out a container's components in a rectangular grid.
The container is divided into equal-sized rectangles,
and one component is placed in each rectangle.
For example, the following is an applet that lays out six buttons
into three rows and two columns:

If the container's ComponentOrientation property is horizontal
and left-to-right, the above example produces the output shown in Figure 1.
If the container's ComponentOrientation property is horizontal
and right-to-left, the example produces the output shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1: Horizontal, Left-to-Right

Figure 2: Horizontal, Right-to-Left

When both the number of rows and the number of columns have
been set to non-zero values, either by a constructor or
by the setRows and setColumns methods, the number of
columns specified is ignored. Instead, the number of
columns is determined from the specified number of rows
and the total number of components in the layout. So, for
example, if three rows and two columns have been specified
and nine components are added to the layout, they will
be displayed as three rows of three columns. Specifying
the number of columns affects the layout only when the
number of rows is set to zero.

getColumns

public int getColumns()

Gets the number of columns in this layout.

Returns:

the number of columns in this layout

Since:

JDK1.1

setColumns

public void setColumns(int cols)

Sets the number of columns in this layout to the specified value.
Setting the number of columns has no affect on the layout
if the number of rows specified by a constructor or by
the setRows method is non-zero. In that case, the number
of columns displayed in the layout is determined by the total
number of components and the number of rows specified.

preferredLayoutSize

Determines the preferred size of the container argument using
this grid layout.

The preferred width of a grid layout is the largest preferred
width of all of the components in the container times the number of
columns, plus the horizontal padding times the number of columns
minus one, plus the left and right insets of the target container.

The preferred height of a grid layout is the largest preferred
height of all of the components in the container times the number of
rows, plus the vertical padding times the number of rows minus one,
plus the top and bottom insets of the target container.

minimumLayoutSize

Determines the minimum size of the container argument using this
grid layout.

The minimum width of a grid layout is the largest minimum width
of all of the components in the container times the number of columns,
plus the horizontal padding times the number of columns minus one,
plus the left and right insets of the target container.

The minimum height of a grid layout is the largest minimum height
of all of the components in the container times the number of rows,
plus the vertical padding times the number of rows minus one, plus
the top and bottom insets of the target container.

layoutContainer

This method reshapes the components in the specified target
container in order to satisfy the constraints of the
GridLayout object.

The grid layout manager determines the size of individual
components by dividing the free space in the container into
equal-sized portions according to the number of rows and columns
in the layout. The container's free space equals the container's
size minus any insets and any specified horizontal or vertical
gap. All components in a grid layout are given the same size.